Verge Greening & The Bushfire Slashing Program

Early in January, the City of Burnside shared some astonishing pictures to their Facebook page, showing the significant difference that trees and other forms of urban greening like grass, shrubs etc made in reducing the temperature of streets. Unshaded bitumen had a temperature of 65°C, over 28°C hotter than parts covered by tree canopy. Verges showed a similar story, with ones containing grass, small shrubs / groundcovers being significantly cooler than those with no greening at all.

Image Credit - City of Burnside

For several years now, Council has been working on establishing a new verge greening incentive scheme and guide. Historically, planting up your verge has been a bit of a bureaucratic process, involving way too much red tape. This is unfortunate, given the significant benefits that greening the verge outside of your house provides, including:

• Reducing the urban heat island effect, by decreasing temperatures and hard surfaces

• Supporting native wildlife

• Reducing stormwater runoff

• Enhancing aesthetics and increasing property values

To this extent, Council decided to collaborate with Flinders University and some of their third-year science students to assess the current extent of developed and undeveloped verges across the City. Their work provides some interesting insights, showing 55% of verges have the chance to be greened, with suburbs Hawthorndene and Kingswood having the most developed verges. Lots of room for improvement!

Council has combined this work in conjunction with learnings from other Councils to launch a brand-new Verge Greening Incentive Scheme and Verge Greening Guide.

The Verge Greening Incentive Scheme includes:

• Reimbursement for 50% of your installation costs, up to a maximum of $500 per property

• This funding can be used for plantings, mulching, irrigation materials, etc

• A new and simple application form – less red tape!

The Verge Greening Guide covers:

• Six suggested, low maintenance and water verge gardens

• Recommended low-growing plants that suit local conditions

• Example gardens at Winston Avenue Reserve, between Somerset Avenue and Cumberland Avenue, Cumberland Park

Find out more at https://www.mitchamcouncil.sa.gov.au/our-environment/managing-our-environment/green-your-verge

Bushfire Slashing Program

Council’s annual bushfire slashing program sees over 148 hectares of open space and 560km of roadside verges (sometimes twice!) slashed each bushfire season. There has been significant community interest and concern this year over the program due to the substantial amount of tall grass / fine fuels present over Christmas and January. While the program started in October as usual, the significant amount of late rain last year saw much of the vegetation remain green until late December and caused significant re-growth for areas already slashed. With limited to no extra contractor availability due to the massive demand around the state for slashing contractors, this posed real challenges in getting the work done in time.

Each year the staff do a review of the effectiveness of this program and I look forward to hearing the results. It is becoming apparent that changes are required to better manage unpredictable climate factors like late rain and lack of contractors to minimise the bushfire risk in the local area.